OK don't rate this yet, I am still writing this guide and ebay seems to have take away the edit and don't show option which I used to use before guides are finished. So not spell check and not proof read just starting this guide pics and more details to follow, this is for 17" or 20" 1.8 & 2.0 Ghz G5 iMacs not isight G5's and not the 1.6 Ghz version which I think might even work in a 20" but I will try that some night when I am bored......

Guide below....

Well your iMac G5 has the dreaded leaking capacitors, it runs for one minute then shuts down, it won't start you need a new logic board or you need to know how to repair it yourself. Well once you go down the path of selling your broken one and buying a refurbished or good used board you will see part numbers and wonder what's the difference between the 17" board and the 20" board.

At first site they look identical, and well yes they are almost. Besides the G5 heatsink which could be removed the one problem which prevents a 20" board being used in a 17" model is the direction the ram slots face. On the 17" board the ram slots are pointed toward the G5 processor, on the 20" board they point towards the outside or toward the case. If you try to put a 20" board into a 17" G5 and you swap the 17" heatsink onto it you will run into the problem that the ram slots hit the casing. But if you have a 20" G5 you are in luck you can use a 17" board because this won't run into space problems.

I know what you are thinking, will the 17" G5 board run correctly in the 20" model, absolutely you will have no problems except of course the inverter connection and board won't work so yes this is a bit trivial you could make a screen less server like this. Anyway writing this guide slowly as I fix more and more of these broken iMacs....